First build- Jazzmaster!

[Kindermann]

Here she is, my first build! It was a steep learning curve but I couldn't be happier with the result! I'm in love  :evil4:

Body;
Black Korina on Alder
Brown to clear burst

Neck;
Madagascan ebony on raw Goncalo Alves
59 Roundback
SS Frets

Creamery Pickups

Mastery bridge and trem

https://imgur.com/a/Ax3Y9#vNJnalX

 

[zebra]

Great work, all of those components and colors really seem to go well together...
And sunburst over black korina...I really need to do that someday!

Congratulations!

 

[stratamania]

Looks like a good result. Well done  ccasion14:

 

[Great Ape]

Very, very classy! I love it! :icon_thumright: :icon_thumright:

 

[BigSteve22]

Nicely done. Enjoy your new axe!

 

[DocNrock]

Very nice build.  Clean and simple. 

 

[Glimmer]

Kindermann – that is a truly beautiful JM; thanks for sharing!

I'm contemplating a JM build with similar woods and am wondering how you're liking it? Anything you would do differently? Finally, do you have any audio you can share?

Would love to know more about / hear this guitar.

 

[Verne Bunsen]

Damn thats pretty! There's a Black Korina JM body I keep going back to in the showcase...I have all the same questions as Glimmer, haha!

 

[anorakDan]

So very nice. You should be proud of that build.

I want to build an Iceman with that sunburst over BK with binding. If it's a fraction as stunning as your Jazzer I will be pleased.

 

[Glimmer]

There's a Black Korina JM body I keep going back to in the showcase...

Yes, I saw that one too. It's very close to what I'm wanting, but I still have a few details to work out before I take the plunge, the main one being the pups – I'm considering Lollars, Novaks, and Joe Bardens but can't make up my mind. Decisions, decisions...

 

[Verne Bunsen]

There's a Black Korina JM body I keep going back to in the showcase...

Yes, I saw that one too. It's very close to what I'm wanting, but I still have a few details to work out before I take the plunge, the main one being the pups – I'm considering Lollars, Novaks, and Joe Bardens but can't make up my mind. Decisions, decisions...

I put the Lollars in my dad's Jazzmaster for Christmas last year, they are phenomenal.

 

[Glimmer]

I put the Lollars in my dad's Jazzmaster for Christmas last year, they are phenomenal.

The Lollars were my first choice, then I stumbled onto good reviews of the others, even SD Antiquitys, which made me think. Ultimately, I'd like something that retains the traditional JM tone, while maybe offering a slightly fuller, warmer sound for clean playing (I'll be using the guitar more for jazz than for all-out ballsy rock or blues).

Sorry, don't mean to highjack this thread...  :icon_smile:

 

[Cagey]

Damn thats pretty! There's a Black Korina JM body I keep going back to in the showcase...I have all the same questions as Glimmer, haha!

One thing you might want to keep in mind is to single-source your dimensionally-dependant components such as pickguards, cover plates, etc. Otherwise, you're liable to find yourself drilling/routing/sanding to get them to match up, which is no fun. Normally, that's not an issue as Warmoth is often more blueprint accurate than even Fender is except for the Mustang/Jaguar/Jazzmaster designs. There, I'm not sure who's right, all I know is aftermarket parts don't always work.

 

[Kindermann]

Hi,

Sorry I haven't responded in a timely fashion!

Would I have done anything differently? No, not in terms of what I ordered. The quality exceeded all expectation, especially the neck which continues to blow me away

The sound is lovely. a rich unplugged tone and fantastic amplified. Being my first jazzy I was surprised by the size of the guitar which I like, I do find bends to be harder than a typical guitar, I think this may be due to the fact that the angle over the bridge is fairly shallow, as is the neck, so when bending the string is pulled across the bridge

The only problem I had was, When drilling the pick guard holes, I aligned the guard with the edge of the neck pocket and drilled 5 holes just to hold the guard in place. This caused the pickup holes to be off center with the pickup cavities, the edges of the pickups were actually touching the guard. To correct this I had to dowel and re drill the 5 holes. I then aligned the pickguard pickup holes with the pickup cavities, drilled the remaining holes and screwed it on. I now had overhang into the neck pocket, I then had to file/sand the guard flush with neck pocket. I was a bit surprised the pickguard wasn't a perfect fit as it was all ordered from Warmoth??

 

[Cagey]

Pickguard alignment is often problematic with Jaguars/Jazzmasters - not sure why. Perhaps because too many things need to align, which limits how much you can position the thing to compensate for production tolerances.  Should have been somewhat easier with a single-piece pickguard like you used.

As for bends being more difficult, that wouldn't be due to bridge breakover angle. Are you used to a shorter scale, such as you'd have with a Gibson? Longer strings such as used in the Fender scale need to have more tension on them to reach the same pitch, and that tightness translates into more difficult bends/vibrato. It's counter-intuitive, but that's the reality of it.

 

[Glimmer]

Thanks for your reply, Kindermann. Glad to know you're happy with your JM (though sorry to hear about your pg problems!) If I might ask a couple more questions...

How do you find your guitar's tone? Can you still get a "bright" sound with the "warmer" neck woods? And how does the neck pup sound?

One last thing: out of curiosity, when you ordered your neck, did you simply specify a GA shaft or did you request a "streaky" one (Cagey will recognize the question from a recent, related thread)?

Sorry for the interrogation! and thanks in advance for your reply.

 

[Kindermann]

Reference the bending Cagey, I'm usually strat player so used to the higher tension. Its not that the tension is that much more, it just feels like I have to bend the string slightly further to achieve pitch than on my strats

With the GA neck, I didn't request anything special, I did however go for a unique choice fingerboard, maybe they chose me a nice piece to match? No idea really, obviously very happy with what arrived  :icon_thumright:

My Jazzy is slightly warmer/darker than a traditional Jazzmaster, but that is what I was trying to achieve in the first place. This is more to do with the 500k pots and the more modern sounding pups I bought. I went for a creamery modern 58 in the neck, and an "extra width" jazz master pickup in the neck http://www.creamery-pickups.co.uk, the bridge sounds like a Jazzmaster/P90 cross and I love it, the neck is closer to a traditional Jazzy but warmer, not at all brittle, and the middle position is a fantastic

 

[Cagey]

Reference the bending Cagey, I'm usually strat player so used to the higher tension. Its not that the tension is that much more, it just feels like I have to bend the string slightly further to achieve pitch than on my strats

Are they all the same strings? I know when I've  flopped around different string sets, even given the same gauge set (9-42), there's a difference in the bend feel between SS, standard D'Addario (EXL120) nickel-plated steel , and NYXL (whatever magical alloy those are), there's a definite difference in feel while bending. The NYXLs feel "springier" than the standards and the SS seem to hit a wall where they suddenly seem to require a lot more tension to reach the same notes. I'm sure other brands/alloy compositions would have similar differences in feel.

 

[Glimmer]

With the GA neck, I didn't request anything special, I did however go for a unique choice fingerboard, maybe they chose me a nice piece to match? No idea really, obviously very happy with what arrived  :icon_thumright:

I'd be happy too, it's a beautiful neck. Never played an unfinished one before, so that will be a discovery. How do you like it?

My Jazzy is slightly warmer/darker than a traditional Jazzmaster, but that is what I was trying to achieve in the first place. This is more to do with the 500k pots and the more modern sounding pups I bought. I went for a creamery modern 58 in the neck, and an "extra width" jazz master pickup in the neck http://www.creamery-pickups.co.uk, the bridge sounds like a Jazzmaster/P90 cross and I love it, the neck is closer to a traditional Jazzy but warmer, not at all brittle, and the middle position is a fantastic

I'm also aiming for warmer/darker, so this is good to know. I don't know Creamery pups, I'll go check out their site. At present I'm planning to go with Novaks – a JM-V in the neck position and a JM-Fat in the bridge – though I may still change my mind.

I appreciate your comments.